Ji Mingfeng Says Chinese Agriculture Should Have the Ambition to Feed the World

This year's summer grain harvest is again a bumper one, the 11th consecutive increase. Some people doubt whether the grain data of recent years is inflated. In fact, it is very simple to verify its authenticity: no one is going short of food. If we had not produced that much, where would the grain come from?

The West has always doubted whether China can feed itself. Chinese people are also often unsure of their own capacity. What everyone may be concerned about right now is just how great China's agricultural capacity actually is. As someone who has long worked in the agricultural field, let me share a few of my own feelings. Twenty years ago we carried the heavy burden of feeding ourselves. Although we firmly believed we could shoulder it, we still had worries about how far we could go. Today, the burden of feeding ourselves is still heavy, but we have already glimpsed the dawn. China now has 1.36 billion people, and when the population peaks between 2025 and 2030 it may reach about 1.45 billion (United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision); some domestic research institutions even predict only 1.41 billion. There are reports saying that the grain we currently waste alone is enough to feed 200 million people. We can be certain that we already have a realistic prospect of being able to feed ourselves; this is not merely a conviction.

It should be pointed out that the premise for us to steadily gain this capacity is that we must unremittingly and strictly protect arable land, water, the environment and other agricultural resources, unremittingly strengthen agricultural infrastructure construction, unremittingly advance progress in agricultural science and technology, and unremittingly advance reform and innovation so that agricultural production and operation models keep pace with the times. In these areas there must not be the slightest slackening.

But is the responsibility of Chinese agriculture limited to feeding China itself?

No. Chinese agriculture should try to take on the heavy responsibility of feeding the world. We should have this breadth of mind and this ideal.

Obviously, it is impossible to feed the world with the limited agricultural resources China now possesses. Our approach is to use the powerful agricultural technology and operational capacity China possesses to develop and operate the world's agricultural resources, and to supply the resulting output to the people of the countries where it is produced. Farm the world's land, feed the world's people. We often say that China feeds nearly 21% of the world's population with less than 9% of the world's arable land; in fact this also demonstrates the level of Chinese agriculture. Many countries with weak agriculture welcome Chinese agricultural investment; what they often worry about is whether the agricultural products produced will be shipped back to China. My answer to these foreign friends in the past was: we do not need that, and even if you wanted to ship it in, you could not, because for bulk grain products such as rice, wheat and corn, we implement import quota management.

⟦NL> In the past seven or eight years, the scale of Chinese industrial and commercial capital interested in investing in the agricultural sector has been very large and shows a continued growth trend. However, owing to the limits of our country's agricultural operation system and agricultural resources, corporate agricultural operations are mainly concentrated in pre-production, post-production and mid-production services, and it is relatively difficult to concentrate land on a large scale for corporate operations. Those industrial and commercial capitals that want to operate agriculture actually do not need to crowd into the domestic market. Why not go out to develop and operate the world's agricultural resources and take on some responsibility for feeding the world?

Of course, industrial and commercial capital investing in agriculture must, in going out, adhere to market methods. Only methods that conform to commercial principles are sustainable methods. At the same time, in order to fulfill Chinese agriculture's world responsibility and promote Chinese capital's investment in world agriculture, the relevant work of the Chinese government is indispensable.